Quivers for holding and carrying arrows are well known. There are three basic types of quivers. The first type is mounted on the back of an archer and its use and design go back into antiquity. A second type of quiver is carried by an archer on the archer's side and can be suspended from a belt or the like. A third type of quiver can be mounted to a bow and carried with the bow. This latter type of quiver can come in a single piece unit or a two piece unit as is known in the art. The bow mounted quiver typically includes a hood for receipt therein of the arrowhead end of an arrow, an arrow shaft holder and for a single piece unit, a stay having the hood and shaft holder mounted thereto. A mounting bracket is typically provided for mounting the stay to the riser of the bow. Two piece quivers are sometimes mounted to the limbs of the bow particularly in non-cam or non-compound bows.
Oftentimes in use, a quiver is removed from the bow prior to shooting the bow to reduce the potential vibrations and induced torque on the bow during and after shooting of an arrow. Typical quivers can be mounted in an adjustable manner on the bow riser which permits upward and downward movement to adjust the quiver's position on the bow to suit a particular archer's needs and desires. It is common for bow mounted quivers to engage a carried arrow in two positions. This can be done by a single lower mounted arrow shaft gripper device which will retain the lower portion of the arrow in position. The upper part of the arrow can be gripped by a second arrow shaft gripper or the arrowhead can be inserted into a foam insert in the hood to retain the upper portion of the arrow in a fixed position. Hoods are provided with a quiver to prevent accidental contact with a sharp broadhead. If sharp broadheads are not used, a hood could be dispensed with. A typical quiver using two arrow shaft grippers and a hood can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,584. Another quiver can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,734. While such quivers have been found to be effective for holding arrows, they still present problems. One particular problem is that an archer may use various types of arrows having different shaft diameters, for example, an aluminum shaft arrow will have a significantly larger diameter than an equivalently spined carbon fiber arrow shaft. The arrow grippers are typically made of an elastomeric material where the resilience of the material is used to accommodate different diameter arrow shafts. Even with the resilience of the material, the grippers have not always been effective in retaining arrows in position in the quiver. An arrow can be released from its mounting in the quiver through vibrations or snags or can move longitudinally exposing the arrowhead if it moves out of the protective confines of the hood.
Thus, there is a need for an improved quiver.